Lists lists lists

03-02-2009, 12:17 PM

I find there are many different types of lists in GTD. You have your Next Action lists, your project lists, and other forms of lists, shopping lists, what movie to see list etc.

My question is where do you keep lists of the later types that you would need constantly updating? like reading list of books to buy? or CDs to purchase? if you keep them in a reference system they are not readily accessible.

My other question is what do you do with a list after you've finished using it. Like your project list for example. Do you delete or archive them?

There are other list i might have like what makes me happy....any advice where something like that would go?

(To put more succintly what are the different types of lists in GTD and how do you manage them)
thanks!

You can then pull out your Checklists folder and scan through each of your lists for anything that jogs your mind during your weekly review. It's also just easier to remember that all of your "other" lists are in one place: Your Checklists folder.

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I agree with Todd V with only two things to add. I always have a capture tool at hand to be sure to capture any additions I have to these lists. Second, I will keep some of these lists (books to read, for example) on my iPhone so, the next time I'm in a bookstore and feel like browsing, I can look for some through my books wishlist.

J

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Thanks guys this was really useful.... I really like the way you set that out Todd V that was exactly what was misty in my head. Now i understand! Before i kept putting my lists in references or NAs but this makes sense now. Its all about being flexible and what works for you and how you define your lists.

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To put more succintly what are the different types of lists in GTD and how do you manage them

Most of my next action lists are in LifeBalance with places being the context. They live on my Macintosh where I do my editing and also synch to my Treo. My phone calls are in the Treo Palm OS To Do list and the Calendar is also there. I also use the Palm Desktop to synch it. I occasionally print lists out when I need to work on stuff in the barn and am worried that manure will gum up the Treo keyboard. Or if it's snowing or raining I'd rather work from a clipboard with my lists printed out as I can replace them easily. If I do that I re-enter the completed tasks in my electronic system when I come in.

My lists of books owned and wanted are Open Office Text files, Fiction and Non-Fiction for owned and on Kindle and not on Kindle for wanted. I have a videos wanted file for videos that are not available on Netflix but the rest of the movies we want to see are in my Netflix queue.

I have a reference file for Book Reading Order that is paper that has the suggested reading order or series chronology for several series of books (Terry Pratchett, Anne McCaffrey, WEB Griffin, Clive Cussler, Maggie Sefton, Monica Ferris, etc.) that we are reading. As I buy or read one of the books I cross it out and then add the next one to my kindle list or the purchase list if it's not on kindle.

Shopping List and Travel Packing List are in SplashShopper both on my Mac and in my Treo. I am looking at adding all the rest of my checklists to that as well although right now they are a mix of Text Files, notes in Yojimbo or on the Palm Memos and paper files. Implementing Checklists is an area I am just starting to work on so that's part of why they are so scattered now.

My goal is to keep nearly all lists available all the time, hence the Treo synch stuff.